The State of Home Improvement in 2026: Trends to Watch
I walked my first job site in 1996. Back then the business was simple. Show up, do the work, shake hands, get paid. Nearly 30 years later I’m running four markets in the Upper Midwest for Great Day Improvements and what I’m watching happen in this industry right now is worth talking about, because a lot of it is being misread.
Outdoor Living Isn’t a Trend Anymore. It’s the Category.
The pandemic didn’t create this shift, it just accelerated something that was already coming. Homeowners stopped treating their backyard and porch as afterthoughts. They started treating them as rooms. Enclosed sunrooms, screened porches, patio covers, four-season spaces that let you be outside without being at the mercy of Wisconsin winters. At Great Day Improvements, that’s our product and I can tell you from running Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, and Minneapolis that demand isn’t slowing down. People figured out during the pandemic that their house needed to work harder for them, and they haven’t forgotten it.
The value proposition is real too. You can add functional square footage with an enclosure for a fraction of what a traditional addition costs. No foundation work, shorter install timeline, and the space actually gets used. That matters to a homeowner who’s spent the last three years watching construction costs climb.
Energy Efficiency Is Driving More Decisions Than Aesthetics
This one I’ve watched evolve since my commercial roofing days. When I was building Penebaker Enterprises and later scaling Roofed Right America, energy performance was always in the conversation on commercial projects. It’s now fully in the residential conversation too. Customers want to know what their investment does for their utility bills. They’re asking about insulation values, low-E glass, how an enclosure interacts with their HVAC load. These aren’t questions I heard five years ago at this frequency. Federal incentives are part of it, but honestly homeowners just got smarter. If you’re a contractor and you can’t talk energy performance, you’re losing bids to someone who can.
The Labor Problem Isn’t Getting Better. It’s Just Getting Managed Better.
This is the one nobody in a leadership role likes to say out loud. We don’t have enough skilled people. The average age of a tradesperson keeps climbing and we’re not backfilling fast enough. When I was building teams at Roofed Right America and grew to 180 employees across five states, recruiting was harder than sales, harder than operations, harder than anything. That’s still true.
The companies winning right now aren’t just offering more money. They’re offering a path. Actual training, actual mentorship, a reason to stay past six months. I’ve built programs around this and I’ve watched the difference it makes in retention and in culture. You can’t scale without people who believe in what they’re building. That takes investment, not just a job posting.
Customers Expect More and the Companies That Figure That Out Will Win
Amazon set the expectation for everyone. Fast response, clear communication, no surprises. A homeowner spending $30,000 on a sunroom wants to know what’s happening with their project. They want someone to call them back. They want problems addressed before they have to call twice. I’ve watched companies with great products lose customers permanently over follow-up failures. In 2026 the review is part of the job. You don’t get to ignore it.
Nearly 30 years in and I’m still learning this industry. But the fundamentals haven’t changed. Hire right, train hard, take care of the customer, and show up. Everything else is noise. If you want to know more about my path through this business, check out my Experience page or connect with me on LinkedIn.